Saudi Arabia and the UAE are among the top four countries on a massive investment spree to acquire agricultural resources.

The attack on the Saudi Star Company has served as a pretext for a hunting down of innocent civilians and a campaign of murder, torture, harassment and intimidation in the remote corners of the country, warns Anywaa Survival.

Responding to concerns raised by Friends of the Earth International and others about the impacts of land grabbing, The World Bank claims that land lease deals in developing countries can reduce hunger and poverty, and build sustainable agriculture. The facts tell otherwise.

Sixty years on, controversial agricultural projects are back in fashion in Africa and other parts of the developing world as investors - from foreign governments to wealthy individuals - hunt for land to grow food.

Dalla Al Baraka, a Saudi conglomerate with $5 billion in annual revenue, has acquired two million acres of farmland in eastern Sudan to produce food for export to the Middle Eastern kingdom. While the investors are hoping to wean Saudi Arabia off imports from South America, such agreements cause concern among local Sudanese farmers.

Last week, the Land Matrix "land grab" database was released. On paper, they have a strong methodology and strict criteria about projects to be included. In practice, they seem to violate their own rules, at least when it comes to Chinese "projects" in Africa.

Indigenous people fear collective retaliation by government security forces.

Discussions with EU officials covered various aspects of human rights violations in Ethiopia with a focus on the large-scale land-lease to local and international commercial farmers, the evictions of Oromo farmers from their homes and farmlands, and the situation of Oromo refugees in the Horn of Africa and Yemen.

Gunmen attacked the camp of an agricultural company owned by a Saudi billionaire in southwest Ethiopia, Federal Affairs Minister Shiferaw Teklemariam said.

Exploring the fundamental data flaws in the Land Matrix dataset

An international coalition of NGOs and research groups has published the world's largest database of land grab deals struck since 2000, offering unprecedented detail on who's investing, where and what for.

Some CSOs are using the media to paint an inaccurate and distorted picture of the World Bank Group’s work and they are questioning the motives of the conference, says the World Bank's Klaus Deininger.

"During my research trips in Africa, I came across posters against the land grab deals," Liberti told IPS. "One said: ‘Future generations will damn your graves, because you did not leave them any land.’"

While Africa may have celebrated the demise of colonialism, it seems the continent is sliding back to those days, as investors continue to push murky land deals.

Preparation to counter the gathering of 1,000 African Land Buyers who paid an entrance fee of 3,000 dollar at Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan, New York for their conference from April 23 to April 25 is underway.

Governments in the global south are claiming farmland is 'empty' and 'unused' – and flogging it off to foreigners who promise investment. The June summit in Rio needs to call a halt to this.

India, which doesn’t allow corporate farming domestically, has joined the growing list of countries going overseas to look for food security.

How corporate transparency encourages secrecy - the counterproductive role of many NGO's.

Around 400 companies submit applications for licenses for farmland in Ethiopia each month with a growing number of them from Europe.

Ethiopia’s Agriculture Ministry has transferred 100,000 hectares in Benishangul to commercial farmers, and is offering a further 981,000 hectares, about one-fifth of the state’s land.

For millions of indigenous villagers and pastoralists land grabbing means forced relocation, loss of livelihoods, and a death blow to their ancient cultures.

Water grabbing refers to situations where powerful actors take control of valuable water resources for their own benefit, depriving local communities whose livelihoods often depend on these resources and ecosystems.

African continent is the new destination for Indian agriculture companies, as more than 80 of them have invested over Rs 10,800 crore in commercial farming activities in under-developed countries of the region.

Largest cut flower exporter Karuturi Global ventures into food business

The UN has proposed that countries set limits on the size of agriculture land sales to regulate the growing trend of so-called farmland grabs.

Within a few years, acquisition of foreign farmland has become an issue with plenty of explosive potential for the environment and security.

Company looks to tide over land-grabbing allegations, devastating flood for its $300mn project in Ethiopia.

CAADP report urges African ministers to pursue incentives to ease private investments in agriculture without undermining national sovereignty in areas such as land and water acquisition.

Ethiopia’s government said it plans to clear land and provide infrastructure for investors to accelerate a commercial farming drive in the west of the country, amid opposition to the plans that left 19 people dead.

In Uganda it is the top leadership that initiates the land grabs for global land thieves. Whole communities are being displaced and scattered.